Electron, muon, and hadron lateral distributions measured in air showers by the KASCADE experiment

Abstract

Measurements of electron, muon and hadron lateral distributions of extensive air showers as recorded in the Karlsruhe shower core and array detector experiment are presented. The data cover the energy range from 5×10 14 eV up to almost 10 17 eV and extend from the inner core region to distances of 200 m. The electron and muon distributions are corrected for mutual contaminations by taking into account the detector properties in the experiment. All distributions are well described by NKG functions. The scale radii describing the electron and hadron data best are ≃30 and ≃10 m, respectively. We discuss the correlation between the scale radii and the `age' parameter as well as their dependence on shower size, zenith angle, and particle energy threshold.